


I'm Right Here

by DollyPop



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Concussions, F/M, Flirting, Football
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 03:39:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6595078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyPop/pseuds/DollyPop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“…what happened?” he asked, his mouth tasting sour, head pounding, the world dizzy.</p>
<p>Marie fidgeted, biting her lip. “I…um, I hit you with my football.”</p>
<p>“Fuck," he started, "you’re a real knock-out, then.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Right Here

Stein looked like a cat that was rubbed in the wrong direction and Spirit rolled his eyes at the fact as they sat against the tree. He had, for once, managed to drag his reclusive hermit of a best friend out of his room for the sake of some well needed sunlight, but the younger didn’t have to look so pissy. Okay, so he might have lied and not mentioned the fact that they were only going to the park so Spirit could watch Kamiko Rei play football.

Still.

With his arms folded over his multiple textbooks, a deadpan expression on his face, and the cigarette dangling from his mouth, Spirit couldn’t help but feel that Stein was massively judging him. Which he was. Immensely. Spirit sighed, wasting precious moments to turn to his friend.

“Could you stop looking like I stepped on your puppy?”

Stein said nothing, only turning the page of his book, pointedly ignoring everyone and everything in the general vicinity.

“Oh, c’mon! You’re always in your room, Stein. You needed to get out more,” Spirit replied, stretching his arms up and basking in the warmth of the sun.

“I feel myself getting sunburned,” Stein remarked, still refusing to look up.

Spirit ignored his sourpuss of a friend. “Besides, you need to talk to people other than me.”

“We’re not talking to anyone-“

“And it’s my job as the more social of us to help you with that.”

Stein finally looked up from his anatomy textbook, lifting a brow. “The last person you spoke to punched you after you asked her ‘What happens when you sit in a tree?-”

Spirit winced. “There’s no need to relive tha-“

“-and you replied with ‘You get pussy willows’.”

“I-“

“I had to administer two stitches.”

He actually looked delighted of the fact, the bastard. But before Spirit had a chance to open his mouth and say something more, perhaps to inform Stein that it was in the past and, after all, it was still far more experience than Stein got, the football flashed by his eyes.

Dear lord. Were they being used as target practice? Or was Kami just feeling like assaulting them with stray sporting goods?

And by ‘them’, Spirit meant ‘Stein’, because the ball flew by, making a harsh whooshing noise as it sailed through the air to smack against the side of Stein’s face, knocking his glasses in the air and sending him whirling to the ground. Spirit’s mouth dropped open, a harsh gasp in his throat, and he felt as though he’d gotten whiplash when he heard a sharp, highly feminine squeal.

“Oh my god, oh my god, is he dead? Did I kill him? Oh my god. I’m so sorry! Oh my god, is he okay?”

Spirit watched, flabbergasted, as a petite blonde he hadn’t seen before came running, her short-shorts hiking higher up her thighs with how fast she was rushing to them, her expression horrified.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” she repeated, racing over before kneeling down onto the ground, her eyes…eye, more like it, considering the eyepatch she was wearing, horrified. Her hands came to Stein’s wrist, feeling for a pulse. “Where did it hit him, is he okay?” When Stein’s eyelids fluttered, his gaze unfocused, she leaned into his line of sight. “Hey, are you okay? Is he usually like this?” she asked, glancing back up at Spirit, who was about to inform her that, no, Stein was usually not half-passed out on the floor, obviously.

But it was too late. Kami had noticed that Spirit was in the general vicinity and Spirit yelped, immediately ducking behind the tree when he saw her gesturing so wildly, her sandy pigtails flopped around.

“Uh, no,” Spirit squeaked out, figuring that Stein was durable enough to last on his own for a few minutes. He’d had worse. “No, he needs help. Give him CPR or something, I’ll just be a second,” he said, immediately turning tail and heading goodness knew where. And that left her kneeling down beside Stein, her hands still hovering. She opened her mouth to yell out, ask him what the hell he thought he was doing when his friend(?) was laying on the ground, but Stein’s soft groan hit her ears and she shifted her attention immediately back to him, her eye widening.

“Hey? Hey! Are you okay?” she said, snapping her fingers in front of his face as his eyes lazily tried to focus, his pupils unsteady. He made another low noise, seemingly coming from the back of his throat with how guttural it was, and she snapped her fingers again. “Hey, how many fingers am I holding up?”

No good. He only seemed to mash his mouth to the side, closing his eyes. Somewhere in the distance, she spotted the gleam of his glasses.

Double no good.

She cringed. “Hey? Hey, what’s your name? Hello?”

He murmured out something and she bent down closer to him, hesitating for a moment before she absentmindedly pushed his bangs out of his face. If she saw correctly, the football had hit him in the face, but she was thankful when there was no bloody nose or split lip, though she still winced when she brushed over the bump that was settling around his temple. Definitely concussed, then. Oh, damnit, she’d have to call an ambulance, or something. But she didn’t want to pat around his pockets for an ID, either. And his friend was long gone. “What was that? What’s your name?”

“Shten,” he muttered out, and her brows furrowed.

“Shen?”

He made a sound in the negative, repeating herself, but she’d couldn’t tell that he was trying to tell her that, no, his name was absolutely not “Shen”. Unfortunately, she was already convinced.

“Shen, listen. I’m Marie. I’m right here, okay? I think you’re concussed.”

Well, no shit. He still seemed too disoriented for any real comments, and when she patted at her pockets, she realized that she’d left her phone in her purse, which was still on the bench. She closed her eye at the thought, cursing her lack of foresight.

She couldn’t well leave Shen alone. He was clearly in need of assistance, and if he fell asleep or went under, it could be terrible for him. Marie supposed she’d just have to wait for his redheaded friend to return after Kami beat his ass into next Thursday.

“Shen?”

“Shtein-“ he started again, regaining some sort of clarity, but she only barreled on, trying to conjure up some of her very minimal knowledge on head trauma. With how many people she’d sent sprawling to the floor, one would assume she’d take more time in learning how to immediately deal with it.

But most of the time, those people had just provoked her. They weren’t innocent bystanders who had the bad luck to be in the direct line of “The Pulverizer”’s throw.

“I’m going to cushion your head, okay? I think you have a really bad concussion.”

“’m I dead?” Stein asked, trying to focus his gaze upward, focus on the soft, warm, comforting voice that was, for some reason, calling out “Shen”.

“No, not dead. Just…just concussed,” she replied, taking note of his hazy, gold-green eyes. She cursed the fact that it was about 90 degrees outside, making it so that she didn’t even have a jacket to fold up and place under his head. Chewing her lip, she simply sighed and threw caution to the wind. He seemed harmless enough.

And she did almost murder the poor man.

His brows furrowed, head feeling swimmy and fuzzy all at the same time. Concussed? Oh. Oh. Maybe that was why everything went dizzy when he felt himself getting tugged and he squished his eyes closed at the feeling. His hand must have come out for general leverage, because suddenly, he was grasping what felt like warm flesh.

The feeling of being dragged was gone almost immediately, and he felt far more comfortable. Whatever the voice had placed beneath his abused skull had clearly done the job.

In the meantime, Marie brushed away the hair that had gotten in his face once more so she could get a better look at his temple, shifting slightly to get more comfortable with his head pillowed on her thighs. A few feet away from him, she spotted the football she had thrown and she cringed, instead focusing her attention back on his face.

He looked far more youthful up close. What she had assumed was gray hair from far back was actually the palest ashy white-blonde she’d ever seen, with eyebrows and stubble and eyelashes to match. He couldn’t have been even two years older than her.

Though it was terrible, she at least felt slightly more at ease at having hit a man in his twenties as opposed to some elderly person. Chances were, Shen hadn’t broken a hip when he went to the dirt, thankfully not eating grass on his descend.

Lord, she was going to have to buy the poor guy a coffee, he was developing quite the bruise. The fact that he was attractive had nothing to do with a trip to Starbucks, either. Absolutely not.

She had to stop meeting guys in that way. Her friends already teased her enough.

“Hey,” she called out again, softly. “Hey, you have to keep your eyes open.”

She didn’t remember much from her Wikipedia Odysseys, but that much she thought she knew. Maybe. Possibly. Good God, she hoped he was going to be okay.

When he blinked up at her, she locked gazes with him though he squinted at her.

Oh. That was right. The glasses were multiple feet away. Damn, she really hoped they weren’t broken. If he could barely make out her face while he was so close to her, she couldn’t even think to imagine how much he needed his glasses. Her contact was itching, reminding her of how terrible her own eyesight was without some sort of correction. Suddenly, his brows furrowed once more.

“’s a nice p’llow, where c’n I buy one?” he asked, blearily staring up at her. When he spotted her blush, plus the fact that the cushion under his head squirmed along with her as she shifted, he only blinked, not connecting everything for a moment before the realization dawned on him. “Oh,” he said, eloquently, taking in the shape that owned the voice.

Were people supposed to have halos? The sunlight was seemingly reflecting off her golden locks and her face was soft and concerned, looking every bit like one of those animated heroines that Spirit had a fondness for watching in Disney Movies he played on repeat.

It could have just been his eyes, considering she had the blurred quality of a painting to her with how terrible his eyesight was, just hazy enough to make out the features but not in focus enough to bring everything into sharp clarity. Not until she leaned forward a little more and he got a better look of her amber eye, her full mouth curled into a gentle frown.

Wait. That wasn’t normal. He didn’t often frequent random women’s laps.

Actually, he never frequented random women’s laps.

“…what happened?” he asked, his mouth tasting sour. Had Spirit somehow convinced him to play flip cup, again? The headache alone was reminding him of pounding hangovers, already. The woman seemed warm and comforting, easing his nerves.

He watched as her features grew embarrassed, the blush previously coming upon her face deepening. “I…um, I hit you with my football.”

He winced at the migraine that was forming. “Fuck. You’re a real knock-out, then,” he said, and before he could realize what he’d uttered, the absolute absurdity of it all, Marie snorted, bringing a hand to her mouth.

“Oh my god,” she said, trying to cover up her loud giggles. “Did you really just say that?” she asked, her entire torso trembling with how hard her laughter was getting.

The realization of what he said finally came through, his brain starting to clear, but he didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed.

“Oh my god, Shen-“

“Shen?” he asked, breaking through her chuckles, brows furrowing.

Marie looked surprised immediately, a sheepish expression on her face. “Isn’t…that your name?” she asked, holding down her absolute amusement.

“…Stein,” he corrected, blinking up at her. And when she remembered that he had tried to say something after she asked if his name was ‘Shen’, she’d only continued on, instead of listening to him. She squirmed in embarrassment, and his head was jostled as a result.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she said, but she seemed to be biting her lip as though to hold down more chortles.

When he only looked at her, there was a moment of tense, awkward silence.

And then he snorted and she immediately lost her composure, tossing her head back and letting out peals of laughter he accompanied with his own snickering. When she finally calmed down, she bent over him one more time, the grin on her face stretched wide over her teeth, her heart-shaped face looking lit from within.

“I’m Marie,” she told him between giggles, and he was surprised to find that his lips were twitching into what must have resembled a smile. “And I think I owe you a coffee after almost killing you?” she said, her grin softening to a sweet smile, her cheeks rosy.

 

* * *

In the distance, Spirit finally took a break in his flirting, having managed to get Kamiko’s number in his phone, to turn around. The woman had sighed, her gaze focused on where her friend with the killer arm was, and Spirit looked over at where he’d left Stein, his eyebrows going up when he noticed the position the other man was in.

Lord, not even ten minutes after meeting a woman and he was already in her lap. Spirit was proud of him. But the real shock was when he squinted, focusing a little more intently and spotted the start of a grin on Stein’s face as he casually seemed to have a conversation with the woman who’d assaulted him, her expression warm and open.

“She has to stop meeting guys like this,” Kamiko said, leaning against the tree.

Spirit glanced at her, eyebrows furrowed, most of his attention still focused on the two as they struggled up, the blonde’s hands coming to Stein’s shoulders when he wobbled.

“Holy crap, she’s like 4 foot 10,” he said, mouth nearly dropping open when he noticed that she barely hit the middle of Stein’s chest.

“9,” Kamiko corrected. “4 foot 9.”

“Is this a common thing?” Spirit asked, baffled at how his friend could do a complete 180 from looking like a cat rubbed the wrong way to a cat that got the cream. “What is she? Cupid with a football?”

Kami raised her eyebrow, looking over to where the two were, not having looked away from each other’s faces. Good god, did they even _blink_?

“Yeah,” she started, sighing once more, "something like that.”


End file.
